Court rejects plea of Pak-Turk school employees on expulsion

A top Pakistani court today rejected a petition filed by about 400 Turkish expatriates, mostly schoolteachers and their families, challenging Pakistan government's orders expelling them from the country coinciding with the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Pak-Turk Educational Foundation chairman Alamgir Khan and employees Ramazan Arslan and Murat Ervan challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the order to expatriate teachers and other staff and their families, including children enrolled in Pakistan, to leave the country before November 20.
The orders were issued by the interior ministry on November 14 ahead of Erdogan's arrival in Pakistan yesterday.
Justice Amir Farooq rejected the petition and asked them to approach the interior ministry.

He said if the visa of any foreigner expires while in a country do they go to the interior ministry for a visa extension or knock the doors of the court.
The visa officer, Muhammad Hafeez, represented the interior ministry before the court, to which the court raised objections, asking why a joint secretary of the ministry was not present for the hearing, the Dawn reported.

The public prosecutor replied that the joint secretary was in a meeting.
The judge summoned the joint secretary to court, upon which Deputy Secretary Naila Zafar and Joint Secretary Salman Qayyum appeared before it.

The officers of the interior ministry informed the court that it had no record of any visa extension requests from Pak-Turk staffers from June 22 or August. The visas of the Pak-Turk school staff expired on September 9.
They further informed the judge that the petitioners' latest request has been received by the ministry with the judge's remarks, saying that giving the staffers a six-day notice to leave the country is unreasonable, attached to them.
In reply to this development, the judge asked the petitioners to approach the ministry with the matter again.
Erdogan had been pushing Pakistan to take action against the Pak-Turk network of schools and staff as they were allegedly linked to his political rival and cleric Fethullah Gulen who has been blamed by the Turkish leader for organising the failed July 15 coup.

Erdogan thanked the Pakistani government for the action against what he alleged was an "evil network" of US-based Gulen's supporters even as he assured that Pak-Turk students would not be affected.
According to the petition, 26 Pak-Turk schools and other institutions are providing education to nearly 11,000 students across the country, catering to the educational needs of deserving students free of cost or on subsidised rates and sending selected Pakistani students abroad on full scholarship for completing their higher studies.
It said the foundation also provided employment to over 1,000 Pakistanis.
The petitioners said the orders were unjust, unfair and arbitrary, and had been issued without disclosing any reason.